Adrian Peterson Surgery Means Running Back Might Be Even More Unstoppable Next Season

The record-breaking running back, who rushed for 2,097 yards in the 2012 season, has had surgery to repair a sports hernia in preparation for the coming season.

It now turns out Peterson had been carrying the hernia since the Vikings’ Week 11 game against the Lions. In other words, Adrian Peterson came within yards of beating the all-time single-season rushing record while enduring a hole in his abdominal muscle wall. It’s also worth noting, of course, that Peterson suffered a major ACL and MCL tear before the beginning of his landmark 2012 season.

The Vikings first listed Peterson on their injury report with an “abdomen” injury before their Week 15 game at the Rams, a match-up that saw Peterson rush 212 yards. Yet Peterson has since revealed he’s been carrying the injury much longer. In a phone interview with ESPN‘s Josina Anderson, the NFL MVP revealed he suffered the injury in Week 11, “but didn’t know the extent I was hurt then”:

“I just remember getting twisted up pretty bad in an awkward position. My jersey never moves like that. I don’t know if it was from a tackle or from me pulling away from someone. I just remember thinking when I saw my jersey like that, that I must’ve gotten twisted up pretty bad. That next day I felt very uncomfortable in my groin and abdominal area. I thought to myself I’ll just wait until I recover but I never did.”

Peterson told Anderson his hernia worsened with each passing week, gradually reducing his involvement in practice. Ironically, it was his old knee injury that seemed to help Peterson:

“With everything that I was going through with my knee, I just said to myself, ‘I am not going to let this bring me down.’ I just focused on doing my rehab, getting rest and continuing to play.

“It was mind over matter. It was just about doing what I had to do to push myself every week. My body was sore from the game and the sports hernia every Monday, so I did what I had to do to recover and get my body right. I just played through the pain. I ran on adrenaline.”

Though reluctant to use the hernia as an excuse, Peterson even suggested the injury may have prevented him from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record:

“It definitely impacted my play. I wasn’t 100 percent, but I wanted to win a championship. I wasn’t going to stop or quit. I made a decision to keep going. I don’t want to make it seem like the sports hernia made me miss it, I could have done it with the injury. All I can say is that I would have had better performances.”

The latest Adrian Peterson surgery should have solved the star’s injury woes, which means he could be even better next season. Comforting news, if you’re a Vikings fan.